Category: Historical
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Diana Gabaldon – Dragonfly in Amber
I have slightly mixed feelings about this book. I was so invested in Claire and Jamie after the end of book one, but starting this book with Claire back in the ‘present day’ made me wonder what we could possibly be about to read. We start the book introduced to Roger, who ends up helping…
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Jojo Moyes – The Giver of Stars
You know a book is good when you just completely forget that you’re reading. And I read this entire book in a single day because I was so enthralled by the story and the world created within. Set in the 1930s, Alice is a young British woman who has just married a gorgeous American man…
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Henry Louis Gates Jr – Dark Sky Rising
I picked up this book as something to listen to when I was decorating the spare room, and while this wasn’t an easy listen, I definitely learnt a lot. We never really learned about American history at school, so although this book was aimed at a younger age range, it was the perfect level for…
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Diana Gabaldon – Outlander
We went on holiday to Scotland for our anniversary this year, and gifts/souvenirs for Outlander were absolutely everywhere. I’d watched the first episode of the Amazon TV series with my friend, but I decided I wanted to read the book before I watched any further. I LOVE Scotland, and a book set in such beautiful…
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Andrew Pettegree – Brand Luther
I started reading this book as a recommendation when we celebrated the 500th anniversary of the reformation in Church. As the reformation started in 1517, that probably makes it quite obvious that it’s taken me quite a while to read this! The book was a fascinating take on the reformation, focused on the impact that…
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Ann Weisgarber – The Glovemaker
For our anniversary, Cameron and I decided to start a new tradition where we will buy each other books related to whatever the anniversary is supposed to be represented by that year. Apparently, year 2 is cotton, so we spend a good hour in Waterstones in Oban looking for books that were cotton related. For…
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Vanessa Curtis – The Earth is Singing
Every once in a while, you read a book that completely breaks you. And this was it for me. I read this book in one train journey from London to Leeds, and I was full out crying on the train from the horrors that were written inside. I cried because these horrors were real. Things…
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Salley Vickers – The Librarian
As an avid reader, it’s probably no surprise that I mainly picked this book due to the title and the front cover – I know, I know, judging a book by it’s cover and all that. But a book which is probably going to be mainly about books, how could I resist? Having finished the…
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Nick Page – A Nearly Infallible History of the Reformation
I started reading two books about the reformation at a similar time, and they are very very different books. The other (which I’m still reading) is very dry and serious and hard to get into, but Nick Page manages to take a topic (like Church history) which could be quite boring or unexciting and make it a…
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Joanna Hickson – Red Rose, White Rose
I’m torn with my opinion on this book, I really am. For huge parts of the book the plot was fast paced and kept me engrossed, but then there were times when it felt like a huge slog to keep turning the pages, and in the end it took me over a month to finish…
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Nick Page – A Nearly Infallible History of Christianity
So if you look at the Goodreads data on when I started and finished this book, you’ll see it has taken me a ridiculously long time to finish reading it. I’d like to point out that this definitely isn’t a reflection of the book, it’s just that I started off only reading the book when…
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Essie Fox – The Somnambulist
Honestly, I only decided to read this book because of how it looked. I didn’t have long to spend at the library choosing my next book, so it was very much a case of judging a book by it’s cover. And what a cover this is, so pretty and enticing! But oh how I’m glad…
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Ian Mortimer – The Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England
I wasn’t sure what I’d think of this book when my boyfriend bought me it for Christmas, as it’s not really my usual kind of book, but I love learning new things so I was excited to give it a try. If I hadn’t lost the book for about 2 months in the mass of…
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Harriet Jacobs – Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Wow, to say this book was hard to read would be a massive understatement. I saw it as a free book on the Kindle bookstore, I would imagine it probably made it into the top 100 due to the success of 12 Years a Slave, which I have bought but have yet to read. And…
Louise Douglas 